Searching for voters in Crenshaw, East LA (VIDEO)

Los Angeles — One of the social centers of the African-American community in the Crenshaw neighborhood is the barber shop, so that’s where we tagged along with Stephanie Carter recently.

Stephanie, who teaches social work at USC, is a volunteer with Organizing for America — the grassroots organization that grew out of President Obama’s campaign. In California, they’re hoping to turn out 1.1 million “Obama voters” — folks who voted for the first time in 2008 — in November. One program is aimed at going to barber shops/beauty shops in African-American neighborhoods and explain why supporting Dems in the mid-terms will help Obama.

Two challenges with that, as Stephanie found: One, even a lot of Obama’s biggest supporters are frustrated with the pace of “change.” And two, many here in Crenshaw didn’t know there was a big midterm election was coming up. (But many HAD seen GOP guv candidate Meg Whitman’s ubiquitous commercials. The name “Jerry Brown” often drew a blank, particularly with younger folks.)

Stephanie was a trooper – patient, yet persistent — because the conversations were little tough (but always respectful) on the day we hung out in Crenshaw. There’s a lot of frustration, as we detail in our dead tree story (available in print only Sunday unless you buy the electronic edition, which can be done here).

Shaky Hand Productions accompanied us, as always. Here’s Stephanie talking with Kevin Knighten, who has owned a shop in Crenshaw for several years. He’s an Obama supporter — but he explains that Obama needs to explain what he’s done in more simple terms. Stop talking to the “Meet the Press” crowd and start talking in terms that realfolks could understand.

(On a side note, checked out some world-class barbershops in Crenshaw. One had a hardwood basketball court stretched across it with — ugh — a Lakers logo on it. Patrons could wait for a cut in three rows of wooden bleachers. Upstairs was a VIP room. Another area was for families. Man, I’ve got to stop going to Supercuts and bump it up a little. One barber’s advice for my thinning thatch of hair: “I’d go all Kojak on you.”)

Also spent some time in east Los Angeles, where GOP guv candidate Meg Whitman just opened an office — the first Republican in years to do so in the heavily Dem neighborhood. And no, their launch party didn’t go so well: More protesters than supporters.

Still, they’re determined to set up camp there, as at the least it may force Dem guv candidate Jerry Brown into spending a bit of time/money in a place that should be a cakewalk.

They’re set to do a ton of outreach there and in the nearby cities — including Bell, Califorina. They’re trying to tie Bell with Brown’s tenure as mayor in Oakland, CA — allegations which Comrade Marinucci and I deconstructed a while back in a special Lies, Half-Truths and Contradictions.

Here’s Hector Barajas, Team Whitman’s director of Latino outreach — and the Zelig of California politics — talking to the Shaky Hand outside city hall in Bell.

So after meeting with the Whitman folks I spent some time on nearby Cesar Chavez Avenue. Few folks even knew that Whitman had opened and office — and those that did shrugged, dubious. They’ve heard politicians of all stripes promise a lot but not deliver. That was a common theme in both Crenshaw and east LA.